Pheasant Plucker: Wild hen rescued alive and unscathed 24 hours after it rams into automotive radiator grill

Many a pheasant has come a cropper in the hedge-lined lanes of the Cotswolds.

But one bird had a lucky escape after colliding with a car – surviving unscathed despite spending 24 hours trapped inside the vehicle’s radiator grill.

The pheasant was plucked to safety after a mechanic dismantled the Ford’s undertray to reach the trapped bird.

The game bird hitched a ride after the car’s owner spotted it on the road and braked.

Fearing the bird had become another roadkill victim, the unnamed driver got out fearing the worst. But when she saw no sign of the bird she drove on, assuming the pheasant has flown away.

Hours later, a colleague noticed the feathered stowaway in the silver car’s front grill.

After failing to free it herself, the driver took her vehicle to a local garage in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, where staff were left stunned by the unusual passenger.

Lucy McDonagh, 44, filmed the rescue as her husband and garage owner James Collett, 59, carefully removed the bird.

The pheasant ended up wedged inside the radiator grill of the silver Ford

Grilled pheasant: The trapped bird was freed after mechanics spent 15 minutes dismantling the car’s undertray

Ms McDonagh, from Northleach, Gloucestershire, said: ‘She (the customer) couldn’t get it out herself and it was hissing at her.

‘The staff popped the car on the MOT ramp and slowly dismantled the engine under tray to reach the pheasant.

‘It took about 15 minutes to get to it.

‘Somehow, it was absolutely fine – not a feather out of place!’

She said the woman who owned the car was a ‘very regular customer and, of course, as a garage trading 104 years in the same village there was no charge made to her for the rescue.’

The bird was later released back into the wild to live to fly another day

Ms McDonagh said the pheasant was placed in a box before the customer offered to go and release the bird by Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone Brewery, on the outskirts of the scenic village.

The drama comes days after a young fox was rescued from the engine bay of an Amazon delivery van in Derby.

The RSPCA said the driver was on shift last Wednesday when he spotted a warning light – and discovered the ‘distressed’ fox when he opened the bonnet.

Staff from the charity used a ‘grasper’ to remove the fox, and it later emerged the creature had triggered the warning light by chewing through wires in the engine.

The fox was treated for a minor burn on her back leg, pressure sores and bruising from where she was trapped, before being taken to Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital where she is now on the ‘road to recovery’.

The fox suffered minor burns after becoming stuck in the Amazon van in Derby

The RSPCA added it hoped to release the fox back into the wild next month.

In November 2018, a pheasant was killed after flying through the windscreen of a lorry passing by Bourton-on-the-Water and landing on the driver’s lap.

A report in Phys.org says the peak time for pheasant roadkill is autumn to late winter.

 It is linked to the times of year when captive-bred pheasants are released from pens, and when supplementary feeding ceases following the end of the shooting season.